Sarasota man aims for space's edge, without an engine

Sunday

Sep 13, 2015 at 12:00 PM

Miguel Inturmendi aims to shatter the glider altitude record, and bring the experience to local schools.

Billy Cox

More than 5,000 miles separate Sarasota from a massive surge of South American wind currents capable of ferrying glider crews into record-smashing altitudes. But thanks to a local test pilot and sponsors of an experimental flying machine, area students from middle school through college might vicariously attempt that dazzling mission as early as next year.The destination — both virtual and actual — is the sky above the Argentine village of El Calafate. That's where an atmospheric phenomenon, discovered in the 1990s, creates a super-muscular updraft when winter Pacific winds roll like waves, at speeds of 30 feet per second, over the Andes mountains. As those powerful currents lose their punch at 60,000 feet, yet another anomaly known as the polar vortex can generate even more lift.Those swirling upper winds are strong enough to clear the troposphere, which tapers off at 45,000 feet, and punch into the stratosphere. From there, mission architects aim to ride the vortex to 90,000 feet, or roughly 5,000 feet higher than the altitude record for fixed-wing aircraft set by the SR-71 Blackbird spyplane."Actually," says Miguel Inturmendi, "they've recorded mountain waves at El Calafate going all the way up to 120,000 feet. So it's possible to go higher than 90,000 feet without the use of an engine."At 43, the Sarasota resident and veteran aviator is a flight test engineer for the Perlan Project, an affiliation of scientists and adventurers whose agenda is far more ambitious than joy-riding. They intend to conduct up-close studies of Earth's stressed ozone layer, which screens out cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. What they learn up there might even provide an evolutionary step for future missions to Mars.Their vehicle is a 1,700-pound, one-of-a-kind carbon-fiber glider with a freakish-looking 84-foot wingspan set for deployment next summer in Argentina, where a four-month window may produce only a dozen or so opportunities to reach 90,000 feet. As part of the European aeronautics giant Airbus Group, the radical Perlan II is the successor to the Perlan I vehicle that set the glider altitude record of 50,722 feet in 2006.Iturmendi, who has piloted more than 120 types of aircraft and tested a variety of innovations for NASA and the Defense Department, also is the cockpit simulator project manager for Perlan II. A certified examiner for SIMCOM Aviation Training in Orlando, this native of Spain is building the simulator, and wants to introduce it into Sarasota schools as a permanent hands-on learning experience."For me, it's all about STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education," says Iturmendi. "Altitude records are necessary to capture the imagination, and when you talk about reaching 90,000 feet with no engine, it sounds crazy."But this is how you get young people interested in science, and you design programs for different levels," adds the father of a 4-year-old daughter. "The simulator will have all the instrumentation the glider has, and students will experience everything the pilots do. Imagine being at that altitude, looking back at the curvature of the Earth, in complete silence, with no acceleration. At that altitude you can see stars in the daytime."The end of a dreamLuminary investors like space-tourist astronaut Dennis Tito and hotel magnate Barron Hilton have joined the not-for-profit Perlan Project to produce the "sky surfing" sailplane.The price tag for the Perlan II initiative is reportedly $7.5 million. Retired NASA and Air Force pilot Einer Enevoldson, who along with the late Steve Fossett guided Perlan I to record-setting glider heights nine years ago, is the mission founder and board chairman. Airbus partnered up in 2014.Optimal conditions for stratospheric waves gathering above the Andean cordillera won't occur until the South American winter next July. At that point, a tow plane will drag the glider toward the mountain currents, where it will cut loose and begin a round-trip mission that could stretch anywhere from six to 12 hours. Amid such low-density air, Perlan II could attain real speeds of roughly 300 mph.Its pressurized cabin will be rigged for recycling 100 percent of its oxygen, and at those altitudes, Perlan II will be operating amid 2-percent environmental air pressure. And that, Iturmendi points out, mirrors the Martian atmosphere. "Ultimately, we want to land on Mars by flying, not by bouncing a ball," he says in reference to the delivery systems NASA uses to deploy its robotic rovers on the Red Planet. "There's a lot we need to learn about glider performance in those conditions."Until then, Perlan II is being tweaked at a hangar near Minden, Nevada, a magnet destination for glider aficionados from around the world. Updrafts along the adjacent Sierra Nevada range mimic conditions similar to El Calafate and are ideal for Perlan II trial runs.Working with a National Science Foundation grant, Wake Forest University has joined the effort to translate Perlan II's adventures into STEM education. Perlan is also partnering with the NASA-turned-private-sector Teachers In Space Program. Perlan CEO Ed Warnock is encouraging students to participate in "CubeSat" instrumentation packages that can be placed aboard the glider for atmospheric experiments. "Our goal," he says, "is to impact as many students in one form or another as we can.To that end, Iturmendi has turned to local philanthropists like Dolphin Aviation owner Ron Ciaravella and entrepreneur Peter Gravelle for contributions to bring the simulator to Sarasota.Under Iturmendi's guidance, Gravelle learned to fly at age 60. He became so enamored of high flight several years ago that he tested himself in Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo centrifuge machine."My esophagus separated from my stomach and I lost 80 percent of my blood supply," recalls the 77-year-old. "For me, that was the end of my dream of going into space."'It's thrilling'SpaceShipTwo's fatal mishap last October over the Mojave Desert was also the end of Iturmendi's dream of reaching the edge of space with Virgin Galactic. Among the first to plunk down $200,000 in 2005 for a reservation aboard Sir Richard Branson's cosmic tourist brainstorm, Inturmendi requested and received a refund immediately thereafter.Still, both he and Gravelle believe in the inevitability of human destiny on the high frontier. That's one of the reasons Gravelle has helped underwrite the local STEM spinoff. "Between computer power and strides in composite materials, we are on the cusp of a revolution in aviation," Gravelle says. "We need to make schoolkids aware of what the promises are, and the opportunities that are available."With a simulator, what you see is what you get. It's exciting, it's thrilling, it's better than anything you can get at Disney. And there's no reason we can't have the next Elon Musk sitting in a classroom right here in Sarasota."Likewise, Ciaravella is sold on Iturmendi's ability to make big things happen."Miguel is probably one of the most interesting characters I've ever met," says Ciaravella. "When I first met him, my first thought was, this guy's full of (expletive). But everything he's ever told me he's going to do, he's gone and done it. He comes up with things that are radical, some things that are avant-garde, and some things that are totally out of the box. And then he delivers."A lot of people who are as technically astute as he is are not good 'people' people, if you know what I mean. But Miguel has the ability to explain complicated things in a way ordinary people can understand. He's a great teacher."Meanwhile, in Argentina, the learning curve will apparently continue to follow an upward spiral. By 2019, Perlan aims to conduct its research at 100,000 feet — again, without fuel, propellers, rocket boosters or anything beyond natural propulsion. Says Iturmendi, "This is tremendously exciting work."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.